Text -- Isaiah 49:21-26 (NET)

49:21 Then you will think to yourself, ‘Who bore these children for me? I was bereaved and barren, dismissed and divorced. Who raised these children? Look, I was left all alone; where did these children come from?’” 49:22 This is what the sovereign Lord says: “Look I will raise my hand to the nations; I will raise my signal flag to the peoples. They will bring your sons in their arms and carry your daughters on their shoulders. 49:23 Kings will be your children’s guardians; their princesses will nurse your children. With their faces to the ground they will bow down to you and they will lick the dirt on your feet. Then you will recognize that I am the Lord; those who wait patiently for me are not put to shame. 49:24 Can spoils be taken from a warrior, or captives be rescued from a conqueror? 49:25 Indeed,” says the Lord, “captives will be taken from a warrior; spoils will be rescued from a conqueror. I will oppose your adversary and I will rescue your children. 49:26 I will make your oppressors eat their own flesh; they will get drunk on their own blood, as if it were wine. Then all humankind will recognize that I am the Lord, your deliverer, your protector, the powerful ruler of Jacob.”

Commentary -- Verse Notes / Footnotes

NET Notes: Isa 49:21

¹ tn Heb “and you will say in your heart.”

² tn Or “exiled and thrust away”; NIV “exiled and rejected.”

NET Notes: Isa 49:23

¹ tn Heb “your,” but Zion here stands by metonymy for her children (see v. 22b).

² tn Heb “you.” See the preceding note.

³ tn Or “at your feet” (NAB, NIV); NLT “from your feet.”

NET Notes: Isa 49:24

¹ tc The Hebrew text has צָדִיק (tsadiq, “a righteous [one]”), but this makes no sense in the parallelism. The Qumran scroll 1QIsa^a reads correctly עריץ (“violent [one], tyrant”; see v. 25).

NET Notes: Isa 49:26

¹ sn Verse 26a depicts siege warfare and bloody defeat. The besieged enemy will be so starved they will their own flesh. The bloodstained bodies lying on the blood-soaked battle site will look as if they collapsed in drunkenness.

² tn Heb “flesh” (so KJV, NASB).

³ tn Heb “your redeemer.” See the note at 41:14.

⁴ tn Heb “the powerful [one] of Jacob.” See 1:24.